I Am My Hair Lyrics

I am my hair

You may have heard Arie

Tell another story but

Yes dear, I am my hair

I am the color of the richest soil

My hair be the leaves

To match my roots

And I don't just grow

I bloom

Able to match the energy of any room

You don't need telekinesis

To tell what type of day it is

Just look at the tresses

And tread lightly

They say your hair is your scalp's protection

But

I learned

There is an emotional psychological

Connection

A sign of struggle or bliss

A symbol of liberation or subjugation

Shea & jojoba can heal my strands

But inside of me needs recalibration

My hair has been subject to everyone's correction

Taught that hair straightened

Pairs perfectly with job applications

That hair can nullify resumes

My mother told me

I needed to tame my texture

That a hot comb would fix my shame

Called my fluff unruly

That no man would take me home

With just a wash and go

That sisters who reject the monochrome

Who refuse to exist black and white

Never get a chance at the spotlight

But no

I am my hair

See these hands fight

Like my strands

Coiled into small fists

That no one would dare wrestle with

I refuse to be limited to guardrails

I do not fit into ponytails

Narrow spaces or trends

And if I do

It's only my permission

I am my hair

And this hair breaks combs

The way I break glass ceilings

My hair wrangles rooms

Isn't scared to stand up

In places folk didn't invite it to

I am my hair

Rough around the edges

I don't lay down

For any old body

I am my hair

And on some days

We don't agree

But this battle really isn't with my hair

It's within me

Learning to accept who it is

In a world where only one type of curl

Gets placed on marquees

My hair is me

And I am all of this

I am not stagnant

I am not a monolith

I am legacy

Greatness

I am the child of Africans

Who survived the Middle Passage

I have the breath of the

Almighty within me

I am divinity

I am Eve

I am the most beautiful creation

Surrounded by perfection

I got loyalty got royalty inside my DNA

Can you see my crown

How you tell a queen how to behave

Refuse to live by standards of beauty that our society says

Letting my edges get swept into politics

Goes against its DNA

I am my hair

A descendant of the

Nandi and Makeda

Not just the

Sugarcane sharecroppers

But Queen of Sheba

Scholars in Timbuktu

I am my hair

I am the heir

Of a kingdom where

My beauty is all my own

And this is the year

Where I and my hair

Reclaim our rightful throne